


Warm Ashes

by guava



Category: Kamen Rider 555, Kamen Rider Series
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-25
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-19 11:30:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3608478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guava/pseuds/guava
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-canon ficlets featuring three storylines: Mari and Takumi's coming of age, Keitaro living on in a now unfamiliar world and Smart Lady's scheme to rebuild Smart Brain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Letter (Mari/Takumi)

**Author's Note:**

> [Here](http://juicedguava.dreamwidth.org/1043.html) is the complete list of prompts.

**01 - letter**

'I'd really like for you to come to my coming of age party.'

Takumi read over the line in Mari's text message countless times over lunch. He had his flip phone open and placed on the top of the table, with the screen facing him. His bowl of ramen was beside it, with chopsticks already positioned across the bowl's rim. He glanced from Mari's text message to the bowl and noticed that it was barely steaming anymore.

"Mister," the restaurant's owner called to him from behind the counter. "Your food is getting cold."

"It's fine," Takumi reassured him, not wanting to give the impression that the food is bad. "I prefer my ramen cold."

The owner frowned at this and silently returned to the kitchen, leaving Takumi alone with his strange food preferences. Seeing that it was safe to eat now, Takumi picked up his chopsticks and dug into his ramen. He did not mind it, but he did have to admit that leaving it to cool made the surface of the soup more oily than he liked, spoiling the taste a little. As he chewed on his noodles, he wished he had ordered a cold dish instead, as he always did when he was alone.

Yet though he was by himself, he still tried to vacuum down his ramen as if he had to prove to his companion that he was not that much of a nekojita. The static screen showing Mari's text message stared neutrally back at him.

He considered telling her what he was doing, give her a chance to tease him a little. He didn't really mind her teasing when they were not seeing each other.

'I can eat hot food now,' he thought of texting back, 'Look forward to it.'

He considered another approach to tell her how he felt.

'I miss your nekojita-friendly cooking.'

He reached for his phone and began typing his message, then stopped. He had a feeling that Mari already knew that. He also had the feeling that at the same moment, Mari, busy and active as she always was, was expecting something from him. She was expecting that he would tell her something she didn't know.

Takumi eventually sent, 'I'll be there.'

 


	2. Sticks and Stones (Keitaro, Takumi)

When Keitaro finally knew about Yuka’s painful past, it was far too late. Thousands of winds have blown past the tree in the park where Yuka died her second death. The ashes of her remnants had scattered away into parts unknown, just like the memories of her.

One afternoon, to stop Keitaro from re-reading the old exchanges between him and Yuka, Takumi told him the truth. They didn’t speak for a while after that. Keitaro didn’t blame him. If there was something Takumi could have done or some way Keitaro could  have helped back then, they would have done it. All Keitaro could do was occupy himself with channeling all his guilt and hurt into gathering proof that Yuka once lived, and that she was loved.

A year ago, the Osadas had moved to another province. When Keitaro had gotten hold of their new number, he called and haltingly told them about Yuka’s passing.

“Who’s that?” They dismissed him, hanging up instantly after.

None of Yuka’s old neighbours knew her well.  They all said the same thing about her always being a silent child. Yuka’s text messages in Keitaro’s phone said otherwise. The more Keitaro walked through Yuka’s old life, the more it hit him that he was the only person she could talk to.

Without a body, the only grave Keitaro could set up for her was a locker at a columbarium. He placed an empty urn in it and on the front, he pasted a picture of her taken from a yearbook that he got from her high school.  He could only recover the one clear picture of her. Like many other girls in the yearbook, her hair was down and she was wearing her winter uniform.  It was her gaze which stood out from the rest, speaking volumes about her wish to live a different life.

As Keitaro closed the locker door and met eyes with her picture again, a film of tears obscured his vision of her. He heard someone stop beside him and slide a stalk of white lily into the side of the locker. It was Takumi. They stood in silence for a while, until Takumi placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Keitaro began to cry.

 

 


	3. Birthday (Mari/Takumi)

In the washroom of the restaurant, Takumi noticed that his hair had grown a little again. His hair had always grown fast. He decided two years ago to keep it long for convenience and didn’t pay too much attention to it until he started living at Kikuchi cleaners with Mari. As a fee for her cooking, he would let her practice her hairdressing skills on him whenever he needed a trim. She knew how to make people look good and he began to like how he looked in the mirror a little more.

Before he left, there was an evening when they were closing Kikuchi cleaners and she said, “Hey, Takumi. It’s not fashionable anymore for guys to have long hair.”

“How would I know what’s in fashion?” Takumi replied, shaking his hair out of his eyes as he locked the front door.

He could guess what she’s leading up to, and as she grabbed his wrist, he allowed himself to be dragged to the kitchen.

“You’re going to love your new look.” She declared, sitting him down and tying a plastic cape around his neck.

“Even if you cut it all off, it’s going to grow back really quickly.” He told her.

“It won’t grow back so fast.” She said as she began to comb his hair. “You’ll at least have a day to enjoy this new style.”

Takumi closed his eyes.  Mari was trimming and shaping more than usual. When he felt that she was done, he prepared himself for a drastic change as he reopened his eyes to check his reflection in the mirror propped before him.

Short hair didn’t look bad on him after all. He turned his head from side to side. His neck felt more relaxed without the added weight of his long hair.

“Thanks,” He said. “My head feels a lot lighter now.”

“It’s your birthday present,” she said, smiling at his reflection. “Happy birthday, Takumi. Congratulations on being an adult.”

“You should have given me something I could keep for a long time.” He said.

He did try to keep her present for as long as he could.  During long nights on his journey when he had nothing to do, he would use a pair of scissors to trim the ends himself, as he used to do before he met her.

Takumi washed his hands and stared at his reflection again. He wondered how he would look the next time they meet again.

 


	4. Immortal (Smart Lady)

When she was born, they called her the in-between. A being between human and Orphnoch. The only one that could feast on both.

When Smart Brain was created, a different them took her in and called her Smart Lady. Now that the Orphnoch King had risen, Smart Brain was reaching its sure end. It could happen in the next day, or the next second, all those high precision equipment in the corporate building crumbling to dust.

After that, what would she become? She—Smart Lady for now—pondered as she stood on the roof of the Smart Brain headquarters. She thought until she was hungry. When she heard her stomach growl, she opened her mouth to release a stream of blue flying creatures from within herself. A hundred of them were sufficient for each meal. As they travelled through her cramped mouth, their fluttering wings beat against her palate, collectively cutting off air. She felt as if she was drowning.

Most would mistake these as butterflies, though they had no thought or will beyond being extensions of herself. As the creatures rose up before descending into the cityscape below, they blended against the azure sky and even she could see their beauty.

She leaned against the railing, both arms outspread, as she waited for their return. The first one was done fast, having claimed its victim nearby. When it landed on her forearm, she absorbed the life force from its feet. She could tell from the life force’s quality that it had claimed an Orphnoch. Human’s life force once processed by an Orphnoch felt so much sweeter.

The rest of the creatures inevitably came back to cling onto her, giving her fill of life force. Once she was full, they dissolved into familiar fine grains for her to dust away. As the last of her hunger pangs dissipated, she licked her lips. She had a premonition that Smart Brain would fall tomorrow. She did not need to tell anyone that, for they would remind her that she was no seer.  

Perhaps she should choose a new name for herself.


	5. Circus (Mari/Takumi)

Before becoming Faiz, Takumi would never go some place to have fun on his own. He would rather not feel disconnected in a place where he didn't belong. When Mari had asked him to go to the circus with her, he accepted with a show of grumbling, secretly hoping that this time, it would be different for him.

For once, he proved himself right.

After all the usual rides and games, they went into the haunted house. So many scary things had happened to them in the past year that it would make no sense for them to deliberately make themselves scared. Takumi was about to remind her of it, but held his tongue. Mari noticed him biting back his words at the last second.

"Hey, Takumi," she said in an exaggerated whisper, pressing herself against his side. "If you're scared, don't be afraid to hide behind me."

"We'll be wasting our money if this place doesn't make us scared." Takumi replied, lightly elbowing her away.

As if on cue, a couple of ghosts popped out from behind some styrofoam rocks. Mari screamed and clung onto Takumi. Takumi stayed silent and waited until Mari extracted herself from him when they had passed the ghosts. He knew that she was only pretending, maybe out of politeness for the actors or just for fun. She actually had the habit of directly punching what scares her, whether it be a cockroach or a night burglar.

After a few more pretend scares, they stopped at a wall with glow-in-the-dark eyeballs squished into its cracks. They paused to poke at their rubbery and wet surface.

"Takumi," Mari said. "Let's be happy and have fun from now on."

"I'm happy and having fun right now." Takumi said.

 It came out so naturally that he didn't have to will himself against holding back.

 Before he could find the words to further express himself, a gloved hand from behind the wall reached out to pat Mari's shoulder. Takumi punched the wall before Mari did so, hurt his hand and they ended the night at the circus' first aid station.

 She laughed, and made him laugh too, and Takumi could always hear their laughter whenever he was alone.

 

 


	6. Abandoned (Smart Lady)

When they die their second death, where do Orphnochs go? No one was around to answer her question. She sat in Murakami’s former office, on his vacated seat. She swivelled the chairman’s black chair round and round while entertaining thoughts on the mystery of  the Orphnoch afterlife.

All she had were premonitions and not visions. Since the future was still upcoming, she looked back into the past instead. Just mere days ago, Murakami would be spending this same hour in this same office. He would forbid her from playing with his chair. She had never tried to overstep boundaries and see what he would do to forbid her. He would most likely do something painful; painfully predictable.

She paused her swivelling as she faced the window. The sunlight was in her face and she closed her eyes to better see her memories. The closest she had ever got to sitting where she was, was when Murakami allowed her to sit on his lap. She liked the physical contact of resting her weight on another’s thighs. Once, she was on his lap at the same time when Kageyama was in the same room, taking initiative to bracket hands around her hip. This sort of close contact with Orphnochs was good, as good as consuming them. Too often their race kept their distance away from her, allowing her to walk among them with nothing obstructing her path.

Murakami once warned her that no matter how much she loved to flirt, she should refrain from touching too intimately. He assumed she wouldn’t want to give the wrong impression that she was a sexual object designed for the Orphnoch race.

Presently, she smirked and crossed her legs. She knew well that in this company, everyone was an object to everyone.

She opened her eyes and redirected her thoughts to the future. There were few things to be removed, until the room was to be converted into a space free of murderers and monsters. She would be made to leave, but she would stay.

Asserting her desire, she turned the chair around, away from the sunlight and towards the interiors of the office. She would stay for no reason at all, as she had done all this while.

**  
  
**


	7. Nosebleed (Mari/Takumi)

It was not the first time that Takumi protected Mari as himself, not as Faiz, when he took a punch for her in that bar brawl. Though, it was probably the first time he took a hit directly in the face that made him bleed for seemingly forever.

Takumi had to bury his nose into a bunch of tissues and look upwards into the night sky. Mari insisted that they wait for the flow to stop on a park bench  and there they were, wasting the night away.  He kept telling her to go back home without him. She had work tomorrow. She should use the remaining hours of the weekend to take a good rest instead of waiting for him in this cold park.

A cold wind blew and Takumi’s neck ached. He leant his head down and pulled the tissues away from his face.  A red drop dripped onto the already bloody wad. He cursed, feeling like sneezing, and was about to wipe his nose on his arm for a change when Mari handed him a fresh tissue.

“Thanks,” Takumi said, blowing his nose. He  rubbed it furiously with the tissues, intending to make it numb enough to mask the stinging of the bleeding wound within. “I feel fine now. Let’s go.”

When he tried to stand, the aching in his nose spread to his temples and forced him to sit again. For a brief moment, he felt Mari’s hand resting on his shoulder, a wordless reassurance that he did not need to push himself. She shifted closer to him on the bench.

“Were you ever injured like this?” She asked. “When you were fighting in the suit?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “At least we survived.”

“Yeah, we did,” she said.

When Takumi turned to her, he saw that she was thinking hard, probably about what that survival meant. He wanted to tell her that it didn’t matter at all. ‘I’m still here to protect you,’ he wanted to say. But he could barely breathe and the words wouldn’t come.

She looked back at him and pressed the tissue packet in her hand across his knuckles, crinkling the plastic.


	8. Forget (Keitaro)

As he was delivering laundry in the neighbourhood, Keitaro randomly thought, ‘What’s Kaido up to these days?’ In the next second, he saw Naoya Kaido himself, chasing and scaring children at the front of the neighbourhood children’s home.

Keitaro’s mind went into overdrive, barely pausing to process what was going on. He returned his stack of fresh laundry back into his van parked nearby, rushed through the opened gates of the children’s home and shoved Kaido a safe distance away from the group of children.

“What are you doing?” He shouted in Kaido’s face.

“What are _you_ doing!?” Kaido shouted back in Keitaro’s face.

“You’re scaring the poor kids!” Keitaro pointed out at the top of his voice.

“ _You’re_ scaring the poor kids!” Kaido repeated, just as loud and with irritating emphasis.

The kids reacted by gathering close together behind Kaido.

“Hey, Kaido-sensei, who’s this weird guy?” One of the boys looked up to ask Kaido.

“Don’t know!” Kaido exclaimed, still as loud as ever. “Why would I know any weird guys!?”

Having noticed that Kaido was wearing  a blue apron with the children’s home logo on it, which proved that he was indeed a teacher here, Keitaro was about to apologize for his mistake. But the comment on Keitaro’s weirdness got to his nerves.

“Wait a moment,” Keitaro retorted. “If I’m the weird guy, then what are you? You’re the one who made me colour my hair and ride around the carousel with you!”

“ _What_ ,” one of the kids responded, drawing out the word.

Just as Kaido raised his fist and was about to punch Keitaro, another adult joined them to herd the kids back inside. It was Rina, one of the Ryuseiji orphans. Mari had shared that Rina had been working at the children’s home ever since the collapse of Smart Brain.

After directing one long glare at Keitaro, Kaido joined the kids inside. Rina stayed behind, and after she and Keitaro exchanged the usual pleasantries, they talked about Kaido.

“He seems like a changed man now.” Keitaro said.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Rina replied. “He seems to have forgotten what we went through. And what he is.”

Keitaro turned to look inside the children’s home, as if searching for a glimpse of the eccentric man. Not too long ago, they were much more alike than they were now.


	9. Sunrise (Smart Lady)

Truly, she lived in an age of heroes. In one second the sunlight was piercing her being, the rays singeing her skin and in the next second she was falling in a man’s arms. As she felt the man shading the sun from her face, she opened her eyes. Through the glasses she had taken minutes ago, she looked at the face of  Inui Takumi, the Faiz user she had been looking for.

He didn’t seem to recognize her, but he looked ill at ease. A little worry in his frown, the remnants of shock in his blinking eyes, probably signs of discomfort at holding a woman’s body so close to himself. He looked more ready to drop her by the roadside than to hook his elbow under her knees and carry her into the horizon.

“Miss, are you okay?” She heard the man beside Takumi say. “Would you like something to drink?”

She turned to him as Takumi righted her on her feet.

“Please pardon me,” she said, adjusting her glasses. “It’s been some time since I’ve been outside for a long time.”

She smiled at Takumi’s friend, then glanced back at Takumi. His face had become a blank and he had not looked back at her ever since he stopped touching her.

“It’s a really hot day,” Takumi’s friend said, readily sympathizing with her. “By the way...something about you looks familiar, but I don’t think we’ve met before. Ah, what a weird thing to say!”

He laughed at himself and she imitated the cadence of his casual laugh. She was about to give him the name on the identity card she had taken along with her glasses and the clothes she had on when Takumi cut her short.

“Keitaro! I’m going first, if you want to stay back and socialize,” he said, already beginning to walk away.

“Takkun!” Keitaro exclaimed before addressing her again. “Sorry about my rude friend. Come by Kikuchi Cleaners to find us and say hi!”

He bowed, apologizing on the behalf of Takumi and ran to catch up to him. She remained still by the roadside as her extensive earshot allowed her to continue to listen to them.

“Hey,  I know now, it’s her clothes that looked familiar,” Keitaro was saying. “Did you notice the pink sweater and skirt she had on? We just returned a similar set to Shimada-san a day ago…”


End file.
